According to plan
by Those sadistic tendencies
Summary: Merlin is mistaken for Arthur and is taken prisoner by King Cenred - who is not very pleased. Warnings for Merlin whump, angry Arthur and very snarky Merlin.
1. Into the woods

**Into the woods **

In retrospect, switching places with the king of Camelot may not have been the best idea in the world, observed Merlin as he ran through the trees as fast as his skinny legs would carry him. It had all been Leon's idea, he knew that riding to Cendred`s kingdom, through the forest would make an excellent opportunity for an ambush, so he had come up with a plan. Merlin was part of that plan. Merlin always put Arthur's safety above all else, so he had willingly volunteered to be a part of it. So here he was now, wearing one of Arthur's royal red tunics and running for his life.

It had all been going quite well until the attack, they had all been joking and laughing at each others expense - mainly at Gwaine`s (due to the fact that he had been turned down by Helga the barmaid), and then Cendred`s men had come out of nowhere. They knew that Cendred would probably send men after them - despite his assurances that he only wanted peace with Camelot - but they had not expected quite so many. In the fight that ensued Merlin had stayed on the sidelines, picking off any stray men who came his way with a hasty spell or two. But then he had been spotted. Six men- obviously assuming he was Arthur had come towards him and Merlin - knowing that he wouldn't be able to use the sword at his belt, had run.

And that brought him up to now, running through the darkening forest away from men who thought that he was someone important - _Well at least he was trying new things!_ Merlin could hear the men pursuing him, they were shouting to each other and their footfalls were all too audible in this empty part of the woods. The boy knew that he couldn't keep on running forever but he didn't have much else of a choice - he couldn't fight off this many men alone and the knights were probably still busy fighting. He was on his own.

Just as this realisation hit him, his foot snagged a tree root and he fell to the ground in a painful heap - he felt a stab of white hot agony burn to life in his left ankle and cried out in pain. He knew that it was probably broken. "Curse my clumsy feet." muttered the servant as he painfully pushed himself back to his feet. He continued to move as fast as he could, shuffling through the branches that whipped at his face and clothes as he passed them, but he knew that he wouldn't get far on a shattered ankle.

Merlin only came out of his glum thoughts when he realised that he couldn't limp any further in this direction - his path was blocked by a wide, dark and very deep looking river. _Oh come on!_ thought Merlin desperately. The men behind him were gaining fast and Merlin knew that he would have to make a decision quickly - so he jumped. The freezing cold water hit Merlin hard, but not as hard as the crossbow bolt that pierced his leg, Merlin yelled out in pain and splashed about in the water, desperately trying to swim to the other side.

Merlin heard voices yell in triumph behind him and felt hands gripping his shoulders tightly from behind, dragging him out of the icy water. He flailed about and lashed out at the man holding him, who swore and dropped the servant to the ground. Merlin struggled to his feet, dripping wet and drew the sword that had been given to him as part of the disguise, he waved it in what he hoped was a threatening manner at the men who had circled him. "The mighty King Arthur of Camelot doesn't look all that _mighty _to me!" shouted one of the soldiers to his friends who laughed nastily and nodded their agreement. Each man was large and muscled, all of them were brandishing weapons and looked very pleased with themselves for managing to maim and corner the "king."

"Stay back! I'm warning you." shouted Merlin in his best impression of Arthur's official "you should be scared" voice. It didn't seem to effect the men in the slightest, they just laughed louder as they circled closer, trapping him against the river bank.

"Or you'll what? Throw a royal tantrum?" The men were all grinning savagely at Merlin who was trembling from the effort of holding the sword up, pain and from the cold river water. His injured ankle and the place where the crossbow bolt had struck him hurt with all hells fury - he gritted his teeth hard against the pain.

Merlin chanced it and lunged forward at the closest man with his sword, who simply dodged out of the way, letting the boy stumble forward, dropping his sword in the process. The laughter turned to a practical storm of hilarity and the men converged on him. Merlin felt something hard and heavy hit the back of his head and collapsed to the ground.


	2. The mighty king of Camelot

**The mighty king of Camelot**

Merlin awoke in such bright sunlight that it made him wish that he hadn't opened his eyes at first, his head was throbbing with pain and his left leg still had a crossbow bolt piercing it - which was understandably very painful and none too comfortable, it felt like the area was on fire. He could no longer feel his broken ankle, although Merlin knew that was probably a bad thing, he was grateful for small mercies - the numbness was better than the alternative blazing agony that he had come to expect with broken bones. The boy slowly cracked open his eyes again and let out a groan of annoyance and pain - he was in a small circular cell. The source of the blinding sunlight was a small grill set into the ceiling, high above him and other than a reinforced wooden door, there were no other ways out.

Merlin was lent against the cold stone wall, opposite the barred cell door, when he tried to push himself to his feet however, he discovered that his hands were tied behind his back with thick rope. The boy let himself stiffly back down into a sitting position and sat facing the door, as he heard footsteps echoing down the corridor outside. Then he heard a voice come into earshot. "You shall be greatly rewarded for your services, Imund." The voice sounded vaguely familiar to Merlin, but the voice that answered was not.

"Thank you sire - I'm sure you'll be very pleased."

The footsteps halted just outside of Merlin's cell and after the scraping of several bolts, the door swung open and King Cenred strode in, dressed in full black leathers, with his two curved swords at his back and with a smug grin on his face. The grin however, vanished when he saw Merlin and turned to one of suppressed anger, he closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Imund, what is this?" he asked through clenched teeth. A smaller man joined Cenred at the doorway with a small and rather proud smile on his face.

"This is King Arthur of Camelot, as you ordered sire!" declared Imund grandly.

"I asked you to bring me Arthur Pendragon." said Cenred slowly. "And you bring me an injured _serving boy_." The smile vanished from Imund`s face, replaced by a look of pure panic.

"No sire! Look at his clothes! He was with the knights! This _is _the king of Camelot!" Cenred opened his eyes and glared down at the blustering man, in a flash of steel he was lying dead on the cell floor, with one of Cenred`s blades sticking out of his chest.

"Idiots!" Yelled Cenred, kicking out at the body of the unfortunate lackey, he glared over at Merlin who was looking slightly worried at the king's temper.

Cenred strode over to Merlin and picked him up by his blue neckerchief, the boy's legs dangled just above the ground. "Bad day?" asked Merlin with an impish grin. Cenred slugged him hard across the jaw, he grunted in pain as he felt his lip split, blood trickled down his chin.

"What's your name_ boy_?" growled Cenred. Merlin spat blood into the king's face. The next blow sent Merlin crashing into the wall in a painful heap.

"Merlin." he coughed, eyes watering with pain.

"Merlin." he rolled the name around his mouth, apparently thinking. "You're Pendragon's servant aren't you?"

"Not that its any of your business." said Merlin, shooting a glare at the preoccupied king.

"You're very insolent for a servant working for the royal family." commented Cenred with a sneer.

"Where do you think I learned it? You have to be with them." muttered the boy, wishing that he could wipe the blood off his face, the taste of it was all coppery and the smell was making him feel dizzy. Cenred laughed at this.

"So impudent! Yet so loyal, I've seen and heard what you're willing to do for the Pendragon's."

"I understand loyalty, unlike some." Merlin's comment seemingly went unnoticed as the leather clad king continued.

"I wonder if your king would be just as loyal to you? Hmm? What do you think he'll do when he learns of your capture?" Merlin blanched - he knew that Arthur would probably arrive in a blaze of prattish glory to "save the day" and that he would probably walk straight into a trap by doing so. Merlin knew that he had to convince Cenred that he meant nothing to him - which was only a bit far off the truth, mused Merlin. He had to keep Arthur safe above all else... even if it meant his own death.

"Arthur couldn't care less about me - if you think that he'll come after me, you're stupider than you look, which I imagine would be quite difficult."

The next blow that hit Merlin, knocked him out of the world of the conscious and into an aching blackness.


	3. The Pendragons fury

**The Pendragon's fury **

Arthur Pendragon was not happy. He had arrived back in Camelot only a few hours ago and he was already preparing to leave again in the morning. It had all been Leon's idea - he had suggested that Arthur use a decoy, and although he had not been particularly happy about it at the time, he had seen it was a good idea and had grudgingly agreed. What no one had counted on however would be Merlin volunteering for the dangerous job. Arthur had of course instantly objected to the idea, but then after much arguing, he had to concede that Merlin was actually the best option - he knew Arthur best, he wanted to do it and was about the same height. So Merlin had been chosen as the decoy.

And now Merlin was gone. Arthur had been fighting of the ambushers and the knights had all been doing the same - they had been winning too. Although their victory had seemed to have been aided greatly by branches mysteriously falling on men and enemy soldiers spontaneously dropping their weapons. This had only gone noticed by Arthur once or twice but the other knights admitted to have had similar sightings. Weird. The though of a magic user trying to help him was laughable but magic was the only explanation he could come up with - other than extraordinary luck, but seeing as how often he found himself in dangerous situations or wounded, he doubted it was just luck.

All of this had been blown out of Arthur's mind however, when he heard a warning shout from Gwaine, he had turned just in time to see half a dozen or so of Cendred's men chasing after Merlin. Unfortunately Arthur had at that point been too busy fighting to run after his servant - but now he wished that he had. After he and the knights had dispatched the last of Cenred's rather poorly trained soldiers, they had all followed the tracks that led them down to the river - where they had stopped.

There had been no sign of Merlin or his attackers, other than a sword lying in the muddy riverbank. The king had recognized it immediately, it had been the royal forged sword that he had given to Merlin as part of his disguise. Arthur had felt a ball of fear form in his chest at that point - cold, hard and clawing at his insides. The soldiers must have taken Merlin, thinking he was Arthur, and knowing that he would be instantly killed if he disagreed, Merlin must have played along with it. But Leon, Elyan and Percival had all said that they should head back, as it was getting dark. Gwaine and Arthur had both wanted to continue their search, but knew that they wouldn't get very far with their limited supplies and the fact that Percival was sporting a bleeding head wound. So they had all rode back to Camelot in the setting sun.

Instead of sleeping that night - Arthur had paced his chambers, rubbing his forehead and trying to not scream out with anger at how stupid he felt. He had let that idiot take his place so that Arthur would be safe and happy, but now the king felt anything but. Gwen had come in once or twice to try to comfort Arthur, but each time she failed, Arthur felt quite guilty for sending her away, but he couldn't seem to feel comforted by much anymore. That stupid boy had gotten into trouble again and this time Arthur was worried that it was serious. The prince couldn't see any way that all of this could end well.


	4. The disadvantages of being a warlock

**The disadvantages of being an illegal warlock **

Merlin felt incredibly stupid for not having thought of it sooner - he was a warlock - he didn't have to be in this situation, he could escape these thugs with just a few flashes of golden eyes and a few spells. He could hear a rather patronizing voice in his head telling him what an idiot he was being, and although it sounded suspiciously like Arthur's voice - he had to agree with it anyway. Merlin guessed that he was just so used to hiding his magic by now that he just didn't use it as much as he probably should.

"_Abricaþ benda__" _muttered the boy, he felt the ropes around his wrists snap and he pushed himself to his feet, rubbing his sore skin and quickly going over to the cell door. "_Abanne átí" _The door swung open with a few clicks and Merlin slipped outside into the stone corridor. He started down the corridor to his left, letting his shaky feet carry him as fast and as quietly as he could but -

"STOP!" yelled a voice from behind him. Merlin broke into a limping sprint, his leg wound and his broken ankle searing with blinding pain with every single step.

Merlin heard the guards pursuing him and knew that he wouldn't be able to outrun them, so he turned a shouted a spell into the faces of the very surprised men. "_Ic þé wiþdrífe," _The men flew backwards - crashing into walls and each other, Merlin gave a small apologetic smile to the unconscious men "Sorry." Although they were probably trying to kill him, he still felt kind of bad about it, he didn't like violence really.

Merlin turned just as something hard hit him in the side of the head, he staggered with a yell of pain, blinking to try to get rid of the black and red spots forming in his vision. He looked up to see Cenred striding towards him, and realised that what had hit him had been the well aimed pommel of one of Cenred`s daggers. "So you're a sorcerer then _Mer_lin?" said Cenred with a slight frown crossing his darkly handsome features. "Why live in Camelot then? Why serve the Pendragons? They should be your enemies not your masters. You're obviously quite powerful, why don't you come and serve me instead?"

Merlin coughed harshly and spat at Cenred

"I lived in your _kingdom _for most of my life and you know what? When my village was attacked, you did nothing. It was _Arthur _who came to help Ealdor - not you. So _no, _I don't think I will join you - and you can find someone else to over polish your leathers." Merlin was sweating with the effort of staying upright - his head wound was making him feel dizzy and he could feel something hot and wet trickling down the side of his face.

Cenred growled with irritation and said in a very quiet and rather dangerous voice. "You'll regret that, _serving boy_." Before Merlin even had the chance to try a spell, Cenred had stepped forward and struck Merlin once more, he felt the blow come into contact with his chest and felt something crack with a rather sickening snapping sound. The boy collapsed onto the cobblestones in pain and only vaguely heard Cenred order his men to take Merlin back to his cell. The pain made it nearly impossible to focus enough to try another spell as he was dragged back down the corridor, but he managed to choke out one last insult.

"You're awfully sensitive about your appearance aren't you?"

That was the last straw for Cenred, he roared with anger and grabbed Merlin by the throat, slamming him into the wall. Merlin choked as the king's fingers closed around his neck, squeezing just enough to make him gasp for air, but instead of strangling him - Cenred drew his knife and cut off the boy's neckerchief. Merlin stared at him in confusion and pain, as the leather clad king balled up the sky blue material in his free hand and wiped it across Merlin's head, eliciting a hiss of pain from the raven haired boy. The material came off with a dark red smear, that Merlin realized was his own blood.

Cenred released Merlin who collapsed, gasping and coughing for air to the floor once more, the guards picked his limp form up roughly and continued dragging him back to his cell. The king smiled savagely - he had a letter to write.


	5. Dont shoot the messenger

**Don't shoot the messenger**

The rider arrived just after dawn. Arthur saw him riding fast through the castle gates from his chambers window, he was dressed in black and carried the crest of Cenred`s kingdom - the black and emerald serpent. Arthur had stood sentinel at the window for most of the night, brooding and stewing in his own anger.

The guards at the gate all ran forward to stand, with spears facing the rider as Arthur ran down to the courtyard. But the rider simply halted his dark mount and observed the king with a look of obvious disdain, he threw a tightly furled scroll, bearing a black wax seal to Arthur.

Arthur caught the scroll and tore it open without even looking at the seal - he already knew who it was from. There was no signature or name as to who it was meant for, it simply said in spiky black handwriting. "It seems you've lost something little Pendragon. Come and claim him." Arthur balled up the note in one fist. Cenred had Merlin, and he was holding him hostage - it was obviously a trap. But he couldn't leave Merlin at the mercy of that monster.. could he?

"My king said to give you this, if you seemed unsure of anything." The rider laughed nastily and threw something that fluttered in the breeze to come skittering to Arthur's feet. The king picked it up with a frown, it appeared to be a piece of sky blue cloth. . . _oh no._ It was Merlin's neckerchief . It had a dark red smear over the edge of it however, which Arthur soon realized was blood. Merlin must be hurt, and quite badly to get this amount of blood on his neckerchief. Cenred obviously had no qualms with hurting his captive, he wouldn't hold much value to a man like Cenred, except as leverage... what if Merlin was tortured? Arthur felt a red, hot rage flow through him at the thought, he bunched the material up in his fist and glared fiercely up at the messenger.

"You can tell your _master _that I'm not as stupid as he seems to think, I'm not going to walk straight into such an obvious trap." Arthur's tone was dripping venom and his gaze held flint and steel. If he was going to go after Merlin, he at least wanted to try to get an element of surprise, though it didn't seem very likely from where he was standing.

"The king also said to tell you that if you don't answer within two days, then your little servant will die a slow and painful death." The messenger's laugh was pure malicious contempt "Though i cant guarantee that my lord wont have a bit of fun with him in the meantime." He turned his horse to ride back away from the castle, towards the forest.

Arthur gestured imperiously to one of the guards, who moved over at his king's command. "Give me your crossbow." The guard did as he was told with a confused look on his face and watched as Arthur expertly set the bow and fired. The bolt soared through the air and struck the rider hard in the leg, pinning him to the saddle. Arthur felt a sick sort of justification as he heard the man yell out in pain and spur the horse on faster. Arthur was furious and he was going to prepare the knights as soon as possible. "Gather Sirs Gwaine, Lancelot and Leon, we're going on a hunt."


	6. Sadistic Kings and bumbling servants

**Sadistic kings**

Merlin knew that something was wrong from the moment he opened his eyes. It wasn't the fact that he was back in his cell, it wasn't that his whole body was screaming at him in pain or that he was chained up, hanging from the ceiling - no, it was that he couldn't feel his magic anymore. He couldn't feel its warming, comforting glow anymore and he knew that he wouldn't be using it anytime soon.

Merlin glared up at his manacles, and as he had guessed, there were magical symbols carved into the metal. He recognised them from his magic book that Gaius had given him, they were powerful and were difficult to come by. Cenred must have spent a lot of gold on them, Merlin wondered why he would have gone to so much trouble to keep him captive. What was he planning?

As if on cue, Cenred strode into the room, resplendent in his usual black leathers, he walked over to the chained warlock - grinning his evil grin. "Don't you have _any_ other clothes?" asked Merlin with a tired smirk. "Cause they really don't look that practical - you get too hot in the summer and too cold in winter and they must be a real pain to wash? Or don't you wash them? That would explain the smell, worse than Arthur before bath day-" Merlin's babbling was cut off by another blow to the stomach from one of the guards.

"Don't you ever shut up?" asked the irritable king with a look of mild frustration on his face.

Merlin stopped coughing long enough to say "Nope, I couldn't if I tried." Another blow struck the grin from Merlin's pale features but it came back just as quickly - taunting Cenred was a good distraction from the pain flowing through his whole body. "_Arthur_ hits worse than that!"

Cenred was clearly at the end of his tether, he growled in anger and gestured to one of the guards, who pulled a piece of cloth from his pocket and approached the chained boy. Although Merlin tried to lean backwards, away from the guard, he simply grabbed Merlin by the hair to hold him in place and tied the cloth around Merlin's mouth. Once the gag was in place, the guard took hold of the chain that was holding Merlin up and tugged on it until the boy's feet were dangling about a foot off of the ground.

"Leave - I want the pleasure of breaking him myself." ordered Cenred, who hadn't taken his eyes off of the suddenly not so cheerful manservant. Cenred slowly walked towards him, drawing a short, sharp dagger, he pressed it against Merlin's chest - he sucked in a breath. "Not so smart are we _Mer_lin?" said Cenred with a nasty smile. Merlin would dearly like to have replied with something along the lines of "At least you and Arthur agree on something", but he was a bit preoccupied by the fact that Cenred was now cutting through the royal red shirt he was wearing.

Merlin bit down on his lip as the dagger jabbed into his chest, it went in about halfway up the blade, Cenred - obviously annoyed with Merlin's resilience, twisted the dagger further into the boys chest. The pain was excruciating as Cenred twisted the dagger around inside him, but Merlin was determined not to give any signs of pain if he could help it - he just gnawed on his cheek till that too began to bleed, occasionally letting out small whimpers that escaped through his barrier of pain. Cenred continued to cut deep into Merlin's skin for more pain filled minutes, painting the pale skin with slices of brilliant crimson.

"Well, I think that's enough _for now_." grinned Cenred, the last two words punctuated by two more slashes with the blade, he let out a muffled cry. Merlin thanked the gods that Cenred had stopped when he did, the warlock didn't think that he could have stopped himself crying out if it had gone on much longer. "I'll leave you here to lick your wounds and consider your pitifully short life."

Cenred tugged on the chain holding Merlin up and then released it with a nasty smile. Merlin only realized what had happened when he suddenly dropped the foot to the stone floor, he hit the ground on his side and couldn't hold back a yell of pain as he felt his wounds sear with pain and felt the crossbow bolt shift in his leg. Merlin lay on the floor, breathing hard and let out another groan of pain as Cenred left the room. _I should probably get that bolt out _thought Merlin dazedly. He moved his chained hands over to wrap his hands around the arrow shaft. He took a deep breath and yanked the bolt out. Merlin was unconscious before his head even hit the floor.


	7. Where my demons hide

**Where my demons hide**

Merlin awoke, and immediately wished that he hadn't. The numerous deep slices all over his chest and shoulders burned and stung with every breath. His broken ankle was now swollen, puffy and an angry red color, but he still couldn't feel it. But the worst pain of all was from his leg wound, when Merlin pulled apart the torn material of his trousers to inspect the bolt wound, he was nearly sick. The skin was torn, bloody, red and swollen, puss oozing out from it - the wound had become infected. _So not good. _

Merlin shifted himself until his aching back was resting against the stone wall of the tower; it felt a bit soothing to have the cool stone supporting him. The young warlock realized that he still had the gag tied around his mouth and pulled it down with a sigh. He knew that Cenred would probably pay him another visit soon, so he spent his "rest time" preparing himself for what was to come.

Despite himself - he wished that Arthur would come, but told that part of himself to shut up. If Arthur came after him, he would probably be walking straight into a trap. Merlin prayed that Arthur would see that trying to help him would be suicide - if Arthur had even figured out that Merlin had been taken. He might just assume that Merlin had wondered off or had been killed after the battle. Merlin hoped that he had anyway.

But all too soon, Cenred strode into the room, this time, bearing a flask of something in one hand and a long dagger in the other. Merlin steeled himself for what he feared was coming. "Sleep well?" asked Cenred. Merlin shifted on the floor so that he could look up at the king.

"I've had better, couldn't get me a pillow or something could you?" Cenred chuckled, as if they were just two friends having an everyday conversation.

"Glad to see you've got your smart mouth back, it'll make it more fun to beat it out of you."

"Oh come, when people say stuff like that it's_ never _fun." protested the warlock. The two guards from before hoisted him to his feet, and attached his chains back to the ceiling, winching him up again. Merlin was pretty sure that they had put him up higher this time - just out of malicious pleasure. Cenred approached him, dropping the bottle to the floor and instead going for the boy with the knife.

This time Cenred instead went for Merlin's face. He ever-so carefully brought the knife across the boy's cheek, cutting across to his lips at a snails pace. Merlin let out a quiet cry of pain, it stung like hell and he instinctively leaned back as far as he could, but Cenred grinned evilly and grabbed a hold of Merlin's raven hair and jerked his head back into place. He continued to slice along the boy's face slowly until the knife cut across his lips, once he was there, the king scored several more, stinging lacerations onto Merlin's lips.

"Why are you doing this?" asked the boy, trying to distract himself from the pain and the blood coursing down his pale face.

"Its fun… Keep still." muttered Cenred, frowning slightly as he concentrated on a cut he was making along Merlin's jaw. The warlock swallowed, the blade was a bit too close to his throat for his liking.

"No, I meant why are _you _doing this - you've got lackeys to do it for you haven't you?"

Cenred continued to frown in concentration as he answered "Yes, I have, but I wanted to have the pleasure of breaking the Pendragon's servant myself. Now _keep still." _Cenred punctuated the last part with a sharp jab of the knife into the space just below Merlin's right eye; he let out a harsh cry of pain at the sharp agony. Blood trickled down his face in damp, crimson spirals. Merlin felt a bit sick.

"Why?" spat Merlin "Why should I keep still?" Cenred jerked the blade up until it was less than a quarter of an inch from Merlin's eye.

"_Because _my hand might just . . .slip if you don't and I really have no problems with returning you to your kingling with one less eye." And with that, Cenred's hand flicked the knife up and into Merlin's sapphire blue eye. _He screamed. _


	8. Hunting bastards

**Hunting bastards **

The knights had been riding through the forests on the outskirts of Camelot for nearly the whole day and were all in pretty bad moods. Arthur was stewing in his own anger and worry, Lancelot was quietly, calmly concerned, Leon was less effected than the other men but was still unhappy and Gwaine was nearly falling off his horse drunk.

It was typical of Gwaine to manage to remember to bring a flask of mead but forget to bring much else, mused Arthur as he scowled around at the emerald haze of trees. He had been in a fowl temper since they had left Camelot and had been growing more irritable by the minute, mainly due to Gwaine`s inane chatter. Lancelot had always been the level headed one of the knights, so was not blind drunk and wasn't brooding, he was simply riding along with a calm expression on his face. Only those who knew the knight well would be able to tell that under the demeanour - Lancelot was incredibly concerned for his lost friend.

Whereas Gwaine was dealing with fear and anger the only way he knew how - drinking until he couldn't see straight. It gave the world a nice fuzzy edge and made his troubles seem that much further away. Arthur had not wanted Percival to come along with his head wound still keeping him in bed and he didn't want to upset Gwen further by putting her brother in any unnecessary danger. She had almost lost Elyan to Cenred`s spitefulness once before.

The sun was at its highest peak when they saw the next rider coming towards them. The man was obviously sent from Cenred and was weaving his horse through the trees with an ease that showed that he knew the lands well. Leon and Lancelot drew their swords and rode in front of Arthur in a defensive position, Gwaine tried to join them, but promptly fell off of his horse doing so. The king sighed and drew his sword as the rider approached him. "We're not over the border yet, we have every right to be here!" called Arthur as the rider came to a halt in front of them.

"A present from king Cenred!" the rider called back and threw a package to Sir Lancelot who caught it in one hand, frowning at Cenred`s soldier. "And a warning - there's more where that came from!"

The rider rode away faster than he had arrived - probably because he heard about what happened to the last messenger. He was a dot on the horizon within a minute. "What is it?" Arthur asked.

Lancelot gingerly untied the strings holding the package closed and let out a shout of disgust and horror. "That fucking _bastard_!" It was the first time that any of the knights had ever heard Lancelot swear - even when Lancelot had been gored by that boar a year ago, he hadn't sworn.

"What is it?!" shouted Arthur, this time in alarm, Lancelot looked very pale, almost sickly so, as he twisted around in his saddle to pass the package to his king.

Arthur carefully took the bloodstained cloth square and let out a similar shout to Lancelot, his face was a mix of utter horror and of raging fury. Nestled in the red soaked cloth was a single sapphire colored eye. It stared blankly up at him, and to Arthur, it seemed like the eye still held the same expression of fear and pain that it had when it had been cut out. It was Merlin's eye. Cenred had hurt his friend – _mutilated him. _The bastard was going to pay for this. Arthur spurred his horse into a gallop and yelled back to his knights "Faster! We've got a bastard to hunt!"


	9. Black and bloodied

**Black and bloodied**

Merlin had been awake for the whole time that Cenred had cut out his eye. He had screamed and screamed and _screamed_, but he had not passed out. He had felt it and seen with the other eye as its partner was pulled out. Cenred had smiled a savage, wild crazy smile and had shown Merlin his severed eye, stuck on the edge of the bloodstained knife. Merlin had promptly thrown up all over the cobblestones.

Now the warlock lay shivering and sweating on his bloodstained cell floor, Cenred had released his chains and let him fall into an undignified and sobbing heap on the ground. He didn't know how long he had been laying there, but he guessed that it had probably been quite a while, as his body was going stiff. Cenred was now standing over him, talking, but Merlin couldn't seem to be able to make out the words through the blinding pain he felt all over his body and in his empty eye socket.

Suddenly, Merlin felt a hand gripping his matted hair and pulling up his face so that he was looking straight into Cenred`s merciless eyes. "Merlin?" the boy heard his name break through the haze of mind smashing pain, he moaned. "I know you can hear me, can't you?" Merlin blearily nodded, wishing that the king would leave him alone to sleep. He was so very, very tired.

"I've sent your little king a gift that I think will bring him here pretty soon. So I need you to put on a nice show - make the Pendragon pup feel his _heart tear apart._ Make a good distraction for me._" _Cenred`s smile was full of malicious, sadistic pleasure. Merlin moaned with pain and mustered up enough moisture in his mouth to spit at the leather clad king. Cenred growled and sent a kick into the boy's stomach, he yelled in pain and curled up in a protective ball. _Gods, it hurts so much._

"Come on now Merlin, be a good little _pet_ and do as you're told." said the dark haired king mockingly, he bent down to pick something up, but Merlin was in too much pain to care. That was of course, until something cold and _burning _was poured over him. He screamed out in utter agony as whatever was dripping onto him burned into the scarred flesh around his eye. "That loosened your resolve?" sneered Cenred, grinning down at the spasming servant.

Merlin knew that through the pain, he could never betray Arthur, he could never let the king see him like this. "No! And I'm no one's pet!" he yelled back at the wicked king.

"Well you won't have a choice anyway Merlin my boy, you're going to be my bait. And it _will_ work whether you want it to or not - it's your choice, do it willingly and you might just live." Merlin simply glared up at him. "Have it your way then - your friends are nearly here." And then - to someone out of Merlin's line of sight "Bring him." Merlin was roughly pulled to his feet and dragged out of the cell and down the corridor.

_Arthur, don't come for me, please don't come- _but there he was. Merlin saw Arthur through his one good eye, standing there in the main hall, all in shining silver armor. Like the avenging angel of prattish glory.


	10. The not so great escape

**The not so great escape**

Getting into the castle of Fyrien was the easy part, it was getting out that Leon said would be the tricky part. They weren't going to use the tunnel again, Arthur already knew that he was walking into what was probably going to be a trap - he wasn't going to make the mistake of going through the tunnel again. So instead, they were going to climb the walls.

Arthur remembered when he and Merlin had scaled the walls of Hengist`s castle in order to rescue Gwen, the poor boy had been terrified and the king could now understand why. Now that he wasn't consumed by the fear that Gwen might be dead, Arthur could really appreciate that wall climbing was not fun - especially if you weren't very good at physical activity - which Merlin certainly wasn't.

As Arthur pulled himself up and placed his foot against yet another of the stones in order to reach the top of the watch tower, he realized that he had a similar passion this time as well. He was rushing into a trap in order to save a friend in trouble, although this time it was far more obvious that it _was _indeed a trap. Arthur still knew that he owed it to his best friend that he had to try.

Arthur gasped in relief once he had finally reached the top, pulling himself over the parapet to collapse onto the tower floor. The nights sky twinkled with stars of purest light above him, and Arthur found himself admiring them for a moment as he regained his breath. He pushed himself hurriedly to his feet however, as first Lancelot then Leon and finally a slightly unstable Gwaine grappled their way after him. Once all of the knights were on their feet, Arthur motioned to them and they all hurried through a door that led into the main castle.

They quickly ran, swords drawn, down the darkly lit corridor until they reached what the king remembered as being the great hall. To his surprise however, the doors were open. _Not a good sign. . ._ Arthur advanced and jumped around the corner so that he was now in the great hall.

And there, kneeling at the feet of the ebony throne, in which languished the bastard excuse for a king, at the far end of the dimly lit room…was Merlin. Most of boy's face was in shadow, but from what Arthur could see at this distance made his stomach clench. He could see that Merlin's face was very pale, paler then usual, glowing in the lunar light and he could see the bright red slashes that crisscrossed the boy's face. Cenred sat casually on his throne, legs crossed over one arm and his ringed hand stroking through Merlin's filthy raven hair, as if the boy were a dog, an animal.

The room seemed to be deserted apart from the Cenred and Merlin, and although Arthur was almost certain that this was a trap, he started forward, quickly jogging towards his manservant, but still Merlin didn't move. Even at this closer distance Arthur couldn't see his face clearly and Arthur didn't slow until he heard a muffled cry that sounded suspiciously like "run". Arthur took one last step towards the boy and heard a soft chuckle come from Cenred. He felt a shiver go up his spine. "You disappoint me Arthur, your pretty little servant boy was so sure that you wouldn't come for him, clearly he merits you with more intelligence then you possess."

Cenred waved a hand, and around a dozen or more men stepped forward out of the shadows, pushing the Camelot knights closer together, at the same time, two of the guards lit torches, illuminating the scene before them. Now Arthur knew where the muffled cry had come from, Merlin had a bloody cloth gag tied around his mouth - he had been trying to warn Arthur, typically, _stupidly_ loyal Merlin. "Cenred, let him go." said Arthur slowly and with such a forced calm that the other king chuckled again nastily.

"Now why would I want to do that, little Pendragon?"

Arthur heard more footsteps behind him and saw that Leon, Lancelot and Gwaine had been surrounded by Cenred`s men - they had all walked into a trap. "Drop your sword Arthur." ordered Cenred with a sly smile playing on his darkly handsome features. Arthur's eyes flicked to Merlin, who shook his head vigorously, looking terrified - but not for himself - for Arthur. Half of the boy's face was still in shadow, but he had a feeling that Merlin was keeping it hidden on purpose.

"Drop it Arthur." Cenred`s tone now had an edge to it and he flicked his legs off of his throne, drawing a knife at the same time, resting it against Merlin's throat, using his grip of the boy's hair to expose his neck further, his visible eye widened in panic. Arthur slowly knelt and placed the sword on the floor, shaking with pent up anger and tension. He wanted so badly to go over to the leather clad king and skewer him, spill his guts all over the cobblestones.

"Good boy." Cenred almost purred - he was obviously enjoying this, Arthur's jaw clenched. "You two are so easy to train aren't you?" It was at that moment that Merlin decided to slam his foot into Cenred`s shin and he leapt to his feet, still bound, but fighting like hell.


	11. Save yourself, I'll hold them back

**Save yourself, I****'ll hold them back.**

Merlin was pushed to his knees by Cenred's throne in the great hall, his hands were manacled behind his back and the gag was pulled back into his mouth. It tasted of blood and Merlin hissed as it brushed his lacerated lip, the room he was in was dimly lit and he was kneeling nearly in the shadows. He felt Cenred's fingers twist into his hair and the king began running his fingers through it, Merlin flinched in revulsion and tried to pull away, but couldn't. "Now, Merlin." Cenred whispered into his ear. "If you try to warn your little friends, you'll be the first to die." Merlin glared straight forward - he was going to get Arthur out of here if it killed him.

They waited for about five minutes before Merlin heard footsteps and saw several armor clad men appear around the corner - at the forefront was Arthur. _Idiot. _He felt Arthur's eyes on him and quickly angled his head so that the shadows were hiding his mutilated eye socket, he knew that if Arthur saw it he would be distracted and Merlin knew that the king would die if he made one slip up.

Merlin tried to shout to Arthur to run but all that came out was a muffled yell, Cenred tightened his grip on Merlin's hair a bit further in warning. However Arthur stopped about a foot in front of where Merlin knelt. _Yes! Had Arthur heard him? Get out of here, get out of- _but then Cenred chuckled in that nasty way of his and said "You disappoint me Arthur, your little servant boy was so sure that you wouldn't't come for him, clearly he merits you with more intelligence then you possess." _No, I was wrong! Arthur isn't just an idiot he's incredibly gullible too! _

On some signal, the soldiers moved forward to surround he Camelot knights and light bloomed into life around the room, causing Merlin to squint. "Cenred, let him go." he heard Arthur demand in his most dangerous voice - the one where it was trying to sound contained. Merlin shifted his right leg, he couldn't use magic but he could still give Arthur a chance to escape. When he moved however, a wave of blinding pain went slamming into him from his injured leg and ankle. Merlin gritted his teeth hard against the pain, determined not to let Arthur see his pain. But it appeared that Arthur and Cenred had continued the conversation while Merlin was preoccupied with not yelling out in agony. Cenred`s knife was suddenly moved to his throat, Merlin sucked in a breath, Arthur was staring at him in panic and indecision - Cenred was using him as leverage. Merlin shook his head at the blonde king - telling him to leave him and run.

When Arthur dropped his sword however, Merlin decided that it was time to act and sent a kick backwards as hard as he could and was rewarded with a satisfying grunt of pain from Cenred. Merlin heard the knights behind him take the opportunity as he hoped they would, by fighting for their lives. He scrabbled to his one good foot and ran at Cenred, who had staggered back, he charged into him, knocking him to the ground. The problem was that Merlin's hands were still chained behind his back and without his magic; his fighting skills were a bit limited.

Suddenly hands were pulling him off the king and Merlin was being tugged backwards by what he soon realized was Arthur. He stood panting, both men staring at each other - Merlin staring in irritation and Arthur in horror as he finally saw Merlin's bloody socket. That horror, quickly turned in anger as his gaze fixed on Cenred in murderous fury, he took a step forwards but Merlin placed himself between them and jerked his head towards the exit.

"Oh, right." Arthur stepped back and pulled Merlin's gag down, he gasped in relief.

"You utter prat!"

Arthur looked back in confusion at Merlin who glared at him. "You shouldn't have come!"

"I wasn't going to leave you was I? Cenred sent me your eye**, **Merlin - your bloody _eye_! Don't you think that made me a _tiny bit _concerned?!" cried Arthur.

Merlin gaped, he hadn't expected that. "He sent . . . he _sent_ you my _eye_?" Arthur nodded. "That's . . . well that's just rude."

It was Arthur's turn to gape. "Rude . . . he cuts out your eye and all you can say is that it's _rude_?"

"If you two have quite finished?" Merlin gasped as he felt a dagger pressed against his throat from behind, a leather clad body pressing itself against him. "Nice little stunt you tried back there my pet, but it didn't quite work did it? I was _so _looking forward to breaking you in, you would have made such a good little pet." hissed Cenred in his ear.

"Oh, I wouldn't say that." The knights had won their battle against Cenred`s men and were now backing Arthur, all of which had their swords drawn and were pointing them at Cenred.

"All of you drop your swords, unless you want little Merlin spilling out all over the floor." Cenred`s tone had a hint of desperation to it now - he knew that he was cornered.

"No, Arthur don't!" yelled Merlin as Cenred began dragging him backwards.

"Oh yes, Arthur do!" hissed Cenred in a mocking impression of Merlin's panicked tone.

Merlin closed his eyes so that no one would see the flash of gold in them. Cenred screamed in pain as the handle of the dagger turned red hot, Merlin could feel the king's confusion - he knew that he shouldn't have been able to work magic, but he could and had. But Cenred made one last attempt to ruin Arthur even as the metal scorched into his hand - he plunged the hot dagger straight into Merlin's chest and let it go with a yell of savage triumph. Merlin felt everything go a blinding, agonizing, hot white for a second and then he collapsed.


	12. I'm not ok - I promise

**I'm not okay - I promise.**

Arthur's world was red. His vision had a numbing scarlet haze over it and he could feel the anger coursing through him like burning poison. He watched in trembling fury as Merlin's remaining sapphire eye widened in shock, as the blade was forced through his chest. All Arthur could do as he saw the blood trickle from around the blade embedded in Merlin's chest, was watch in horror. The boy collapsed to the ground with a loud thump. That thump seemed to echo around the room with a finality that sent Arthur's world crashing down around him.

But then Arthur came back to life, and he came back with a vengeance. The king roared an inhuman yell of pure anger, he didn't feel himself move but all of a sudden, Arthur's sword was in Cenred's chest. He was stabbing him over and over, spilling his guts all over the floor and still Arthur went on. Cenred was still grinning in savage pleasure, but the grin was frozen, dark eyes frozen in his final triumph - Cenred was dead. But still Arthur carried on stabbing him. There wasn't enough steel in the world to make this bastard pay for what he had just done.

He felt a hand on his shoulder, it was Lancelot, he was staring down at Arthur in worry and horror. Arthur stopped, he looked down at his hands which were smothered in blood, as was his chest and his sword was dripping with the stuff as well. Arthur dazedly removed his blade from the king that did not deserve that title. He shivered in disgust. He wanted to scrub the blood from his skin, he wanted to scrub until he too bled. Bleed just like Merlin had - Arthur wanted to feel his pain, he had failed him.

It was then that he heard a moan of pain - a moan that came from Merlin. He wasn't dead - not yet anyway. Arthur fell to his knees by the injured and chained manservant. His eye was fluttering open slightly and he was pale, sweaty and gasping for air. "A`thr... m`sorry." he choked and a bubble of blood popped at the corner of his scarred lips.

"Shhh Merlin, we'll get you help, just hold on, you'll be fine, you idiot." Arthur tried soothingly, Lancelot moved forward and as gently as he could, lifted Merlin from the bloodstained floor. Merlin let out a small choked whisper as the dagger shifted in his chest.

"Prat." Arthur nearly choked on his own laughter at the weak attempt, they hurriedly left the castle out of the front gate - the guards seemed to have abandoned their dead king. Lucky for them, Arthur was in the mood for killing - and lots of it.

They ran to where they had tied their horses and Lancelot carefully tied Merlin's limp body down onto the back of his own mount. Arthur leaned over to check that Merlin was still alive and whispered to him "We'll get you back, Merlin, you'll be okay."

And as they rode fast for Camelot, Arthur thought he heard his manservant reply. "M`not okay - I promise."


	13. Mutilation is the most sincere form

**Mutilation is the most sincere form of flattery.**

They had to stop once the sky had become dark again, they had rode hard for most of the day, but had had to stop when everything got a whole lot worse. The knights had been crossing a deep river when the ties holding Merlin onto Lancelot's horse had broken.

The first Arthur knew of it, was when he heard a yell of pain and then a splash, as Merlin toppled into the rushing water. They all stared in horror as Merlin began to sink beneath the surface. Arthur leapt from his horse and into the freezing cold water, he waded over to the half conscious servant and grabbed him, pulling him out of the river and onto the grassy bank.

The boy was shivering worse than before now, and Arthur knew that they would have to get a fire going to stop Merlin from getting sick. The other knights gathered firewood and set up a camp by the river as Arthur carried Merlin to a drier area, under the tree cover. He pulled blankets out of his pack and wrapped the shivering boy up in them, trying to ignore the desperate rasping sound of Merlin's breath. "Merlin? Can you hear me?" asked Arthur, concerned.

"Cccourse . .I .hhear yyou. . .pprrat." Merlin's chattering teeth slurred his words into a mumbling babble, but the king was still comforted by them slightly. Gwaine had gathered enough firewood by now and was lighting it with clumsy fingers.

"You alright mate?" he asked, flicking his dark fringe out off his eyes.

"Nnever bbettter." came the stuttering reply.

Gwaine chuckled in a slightly crazy way. "Nothing keeps you down long, eh Merlin?"

Merlin looked like he going to reply but then choked and coughed, a trickle of blood slipped from his pale lips. "I'm going to check your wounds, Merlin, this will probably hurt." Merlin made an odd choking sound that it took a moment before Arthur realized that was laughter.

"Ccan`t hurt mmore than it already ddoess." Arthur peeled back the already sodden blankets from the boy's chest and pulled up his torn shirt, careful of the embedded dagger and swore - it was clearly infected, yellowish whit puss was oozing from the wound, riding on a horse for a whole day after being imprisoned for three days couldn't really be hygienic.

"Merlin, listen to me. I'm afraid that I'm going to have to take out the dagger." Merlin nodded jerkily and Arthur place his hand on the dagger hilt. Taking a deep, steadying breath, he pulled. Merlin let out a short scream of pain and he paled even further. "Merlin?!" Gwaine came over and joined Arthur to kneel by the boy's side.

"Is . . .ok." panted Merlin, eye closed tightly and jaw clenched. Arthur began wrapping a bandage around the blood soaked hole in Merlin's chest, the dagger didn't seem to have pierced any organs - luckily. Looking down at Merlin, there didnt seem to be an inch of him that wasnt injured, the numerous lacerations over his face and chest were red and swollen, as was the stab wound. Not even mentioning his empty, bloody eye socket, it sicked Arthur to see it, just a gaping hole where his friend's eye used to be - how was Merlin going to handle living with only one eye? He was clumsy enough already.

"Hhe wasn't ggoing to hurt mme." Merlin whispered. Arthur and Gwaine exchanged confused and incredulous looks, Merlin must have a worse fever than they thought.

"Of course he was going to hurt you Merlin, he _did _hurt you. He cut out your bloody eye for gods sake - he stabbed you." But Merlin shook his head vigorously, eye still closed tightly.

"Hhe only did that ccause he tthought that you'd ccome more quickly." Merlin was shaking worse than ever. "I pprovoked hhim. wass my ffault. T`was a compliment rreally, mutilation is the mmost ssincerre form of fflattery after all."

Merlin's breathing evened out a bit and he fell asleep in Arthur's arms, the young king gently lowered him down to the blankets "Oh gods, what did Cenred _do_ to him?" Arthur's whisper was so quiet and tortured that Gwaine didn't know what to say - he just went straight for his hip flask. Arthur joined him soon after.


	14. Dreams of ice and fire

**Dreams of ice and fire**

Everything hurt. Merlin awoke in a seething pit of fire that had him sweating and burning within seconds and then he was in frozen wasteland, freezing to death and shivering. But then he was brought back to the real world, the world where every little tiny inch of him hurt. The world where he was tied down to a horse for reasons that he couldn't quite fathom, he didn't struggle though. It wasn't just that he physically couldn't - it was because the man in front of him was someone he trusted with his life.

He couldn't really feel anything other than his own pain and the only sense that seemed to be working was his hearing. The familiar sound of thudding horse feet on earth suddenly turned to the clattering of hooves on cobblestones. He felt someone untie him from the horse that he had been draped over and felt strong arms carrying him.

The waves of hot and cold kept flowing over him, making him shiver and sweat at the same time. He heard a familiar voice call his name and cracked his sore lips open enough to croak out a reply "Gaius?" A worried, old voice replied to his call.

"Merlin, what happened?" The comforting warm arms left him and he felt something hard under his back - a table? Yes, he must be back in Camelot, in Gaius's patient room.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Arthur sighed in relief as Merlin's eye flickered open to gaze up at himself and Gaius, the boy hadn't moved since the previous day, other than his thrashing and shivering - it seemed that Gaius's voice had roused him. "What happened to him?" The old physicians question was little more than a whisper as he looked down at his ward in horror.

"Cenred. . .he cut out Merlin's eye . . Sent it to me and then. . .then when we had him cornered . . .he stabbed Merlin." Arthur's voice was choked as he spoke and it stuttered out before he could finish.

Gaius then used an amazing skill that Arthur had only ever seen in him - he turned off all of his emotions so that he could treat a patient. He got straight to work, mixing herbs and pouring fresh water into bowls. "Arthur, take off his clothes, I need to get to the wounds." Arthur nodded and pulled the boy's sweat and blood soaked shirt over his head, he did it as gently as he could but Merlin still cried out in pain. However that cry was as nothing compared as to what happened when Arthur pulled off his dirty trousers.

Merlin's scream was so loud and full of agony that Arthur wanted to clap his hands over his ears. It was only then that Arthur saw the puffy swollen skin around his ankle - the sure signs of a broken ankle. And there, on Merlin's upper leg was a large round, red, pussy wound, that looked like it had come from a crossbow bolt. Gaius hurried over to his ward and began to clean the arrow wound with a sweet smelling liquid that made Merlin hiss in even more pain.

"These wounds have become infected and that ankle has set wrong, we will need to reset it once I have stopped the bleeding and given him something for the fever." Gaius carried on working over Merlin's battered and bloody body, until the only blood was pooling out of the chest wound. Gaius wrapped bandages around Merlin's leg wound and then reached for a needle.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Something stabbed into Merlin's chest with a cold fury, he yelled out in pain as it stabbed again and again and again. It felt like a sharp icicle was being plunged into the open wound, pulling the flesh together but tearing him apart with the utter agony of it. Merlin writhed in his own personal hell as the stabbing suddenly stopped and was replaced by something much worse and much more familiar - a cool liquid that burned.

The liquid wasn't the same one as before though, this one burned with a good pain, one that Merlin recognized the smell of - Gaius must be tending to his wounds. With this comforting thought - the exhausted warlock finally let himself drift off into the abyss.


	15. Blame

**Blame **

"Arthur hold him down!" Gaius's voice broke through the horror haze and kicked the king back to life, he reached down and gripped the spasming boy by the shoulders. Merlin continued to jerk and twitch as the old physician stitched his chest wound with a poultice soaked needle and thread. Arthur could feel fresh blood on his hands as it spilled from the stab wound, the smell was sickening and he would have gladly liked to have dropped the boy and ran. But he didn't - he knew that he had to help Merlin - this was Arthur's fault after all.

Suddenly Merlin stopped moving, the king stared down in horror, but then saw that Merlin's chest was still rising and falling - he was just unconscious. Which considering the amount of pain he must be in, was probably for the best. Arthur released the boy's shoulders and stepped back, rubbing his hands together. Gaius finished stitching the wound, carefully wrapped Merlin's chest in clean bandages and moved over to the bench, mixing more herbs.

"Gaius" Arthur swallowed. "Will he be alright?" Gaius stopped what he was doing and Arthur saw his shoulders slump. "Gaius?" Arthur nearly jumped out of his skin when the old physician turned abruptly to face him, the look on his face was murderous. "I don't know! I don't know if he'll live this time! You stupid boy!" Arthur gaped at Gaius - old, kindly Gaius - this wasn't like him. "Merlin was right, he follows you around all the time, saves your life countless times and then you go and do this!"

Gaius advanced on the young, rather scared king, with that same, scary look in his tired old eyes. "You get him beaten, stabbed, poisoned, knocked out, bitten, burnt and this time _mutilated _and then bring him back to me, expecting me to just magically make him alright again!" Arthur was backing up a bit now, frightened by Gaius's sudden explosion of pent up emotion. "You don't realize how many times Merlin has saved your life and then you've just endangered his! One day I'm not going to be able to clear up your mess Arthur!"

Arthur stood, staring at the old physician. He was right - Gaius was right. This was all Arthur's fault. Merlin was just loyal, kind, brave and he always did whatever he could and more to help Arthur - no matter the personal cost. "Gaius . . .you're right. I'm so sorry. . This is all my fault. I should appreciate Merlin more, he's the best manservant- no the best _friend_ any man could ever hope for . . .gods this is all _my fault_."

Arthur collapsed into the chair beside Merlin's bed, he scrubbed a hand over his face, he felt hot tears pricking his eyes. It was then that he heard an exhausted, cracked voice rasp "Who died?"


	16. Im so sorry

**I'm so sorry**

Merlin flicked his eye open, he could hear Arthur crying. It almost made his laugh at the fact that he could sleep through severe medical treatment, but woke the moment he heard that Arthur was in distress. So he tried the only way he knew to comfort him. "Who died?" Arthur jumped and stared tearfully down at him, he hastily scrubbed his eyes with one bloodstained hand. "Merlin? How do you feel?"

Suddenly Gaius was at his blind side, Merlin felt his wrinkled old hands on his shoulder, steadying him as he struggled to sit up. _Everything was cold. _Merlin realized that he was struggling because his hands were still chained behind his back, he could feel the cold, clammy metal digging into his skin. "What kind of a stupid question is that?" he asked with tired, scarred smirk.

"I'd feel a lot better if I could move my hands." Arthur looked confused for a moment and then a look of realization dawned over his pale features. "Oh, I forgot. Sorry." He reached for the dagger at his hip and drew it. Merlin eyed the blade with no small amount of fear - he hadn't had very good experiences with daggers all too recently.

Arthur saw this and looked at the blade in indecision, then he reached over to Merlin and gently laid hand on his arm, a comforting gesture. "Could you turn around?" he asked awkwardly. Gaius helped the young warlock up and then turned him so that Arthur could get to the manacles. Arthur, instead of trying to cut the chains, used the end of the knife to pick into the clasp around the edge, he wiggled it for a moment or so and then Merlin gave a gasp of relief as the manacles fell from his wrists.

Merlin felt the comforting, warm, sweet rush as his magic returned to him - it felt like a breath of fresh air after being underwater for too long. The warlock knew that now his magic had returned, he would be able to heal a lot faster.

He smiled slightly and muttered "Thanks." Arthur nodded, but still looked troubled - as if he was about to cry. "What's up princess?" Merlin tried, as before, he was joking to try to ignore the searing pain all over his body. Gaius gently laid Merlin back down onto the table and left the room for fresh water.

"You were dying Merlin . . .it was my fault . . .you were feverous last night . . .you said some pretty scary stuff." Arthur looked thoroughly shaken and he was a shade paler than he normally was. Arthur had been concerned for him. Merlin felt a little warm ember ignite in his heart - maybe Arthur saw him as a friend, not just a bumbling manservant. "I . . .didn't realized you cared." Arthur looked up sharply at this, he looked odd, angry?

"Of coarse I care Merlin! Am I really that bad at hiding the fact that you're my friend? As that what you see me as? An uncaring ass?" Arthur looked scared. The bravest man that Merlin had ever met - looked scared. "I'm your friend?" Merlin asked incredulously. "Merlin you're more than my friend, you're much more than that." he said in a very quiet voice, that Merlin didn't quite understand. Arthur was very close to him now, his eyes burning with tears and something else that Merlin didn't quite recognise. _Everything was burning._

Then it happened. Arthur leaned forward and his lips met Merlin's with a delicious heat. For a moment Merlin didn't react - he was too shocked and then suddenly Merlin found himself kissing the king back.

**Hi guys! Just to warn youv all that this is NOT slash or anything like this! THIS is Merlin`s feverish imaginings - he doesnt realize whats going on and IT HASNT REALLY HAPPENED! So thanks for the reviews but please dont sign off quite yet. merlin hasnt really woken up. muhahaha.**


	17. The Hope

**The hope**

It had been two days. It had been two days and Merlin still hadn't woken up. Gaius had done his best to tend Merlin's wounds - the cuts on his face and chest, the stab wound, the crossbow bolt puncture, his broken ankle and the empty socket. He had cleaned them, bound them and reset the broken ankle but the wounds were not the problem - Merlin was deep in the grip of a bad fever. He lay on the bed, twitching, shivering and his pale skin was covered in sweat, Merlin's skin was hot to the touch. The injured warlock occasionally muttered in his sleep, sometimes it seemed like he was awake and replying to the but he was just feverish and delirious. Once he began thrashing about, it took both Arthur and Gaius to calm him down again.

Gaius didn't know what to do. He had done his best and Merlin hadn't woken up, he was surely dying. But this couldn't be how it ended, it _couldn't _be - not before he fulfilled the prophecies about him and Arthur - not before magic returned to Albion. Gaius felt so helpless and he hated it. Arthur had only left Merlin's side to change clothes and relieve himself, he hadn't eaten much and had only drank what Gwen had forced him too. The look on his face was so wounded and so sorrowful that Gaius almost felt guilty for his outburst, but he knew that what he had said was the truth.

On the third day, after poring over various books for the past few days, Gaius admitted defeat - the only thing that could help Merlin now was himself. But with Arthur constantly by his side, Gaius couldn't use any magic to help Merlin, help himself. But he had another idea. He approached the young king, who was sitting with his head resting on his elbows, his eyes were half closed, dozing in and out of sleep. "Sire?" he gently shook Arthur's arm, the blonde king jerked upright. "What is it? What's wrong?" he asked in a startled voice, staring around the room blearily.

"Nothings wrong, sire, I just think that you should get some sleep." Gaius used his `wise old man` face as Arthur shook his head. "I'm fine here Gaius." Arthur scrubbed a hand over his face "Arthur, staying here wont help Merlin recover any sooner. You will make yourself I'll if you don't rest and eat, you should return to your rooms and I'll send word if there's any change."

Arthur looked as if he might argue at first but then his shoulders slumped and he nodded in resignation. "Here, this will help you sleep." Gaius passed him a bottle of dark purple liquid, Arthur took it and left the room, closing it softly behind him. Gaius moved quickly over to Merlin's bedside and produced the vial of smelling salts - he opened the jar, holding his nose and put it under Merlin's nose. To his surprise, Merlin jerked upright coughing and let out a cry of pain at the sharp movement.

The boy's blue eye snapped open and he blinked blearily at Gaius. "Ugh . . .what happened?" he groaned.

"You've been unconscious for two days, Merlin." Gaius told him.

"Fever?" Merlin guessed, rubbing his face with one hand.

"Yes and now I'm going to have to ask you for something." Merlin nodded absently, he looked like he was going to be sick.

"Merlin, you need to concentrate. You're going to have to use your magic to heal yourself, I've done all I can." Gaius looked straight into Merlin's hazy sapphire coloured eye, the boy looked back, looking unsure and a bit frightened.

"I. .I don't know if I can do it Gaius." he stuttered. Gaius gripped his shoulder with a comforting hand. "I know you can do it Merlin." Merlin looked uncomfortable and gestured to his empty eye socket "What about. . ?" Gaius reached over to a jar full of putrid smelling blue liquid, inside of it, floated Merlin's eye. Merlin leant over the edge of the bed to vomit all over the floor. "Sorry, Lancelot gave it to me, he had a feeling that you might be able to do something with it if I couldn't." Gaius said.

"Well, now or never." Merlin muttered, mostly to himself it seemed, he looked pale and very scared, he swung his legs over the edge of the bed and sat up. The young warlock took a deep breath, his eye flashed a bright gold and he was suddenly cocooned in bright blue light.

**Hi, sorry about the confusion earlier, my fault! This chapter and all the ones from now on are real and not imagined by Merlin! Thank you for following and reviewing! **


	18. Recovery

**A miraculous recovery**

Merlin released his magic with a shout of relief. It had been begging to be let out to help him, to heal him for so long and now that he found that his hands were somehow unbound, it was only to eager to work on his battered body. The cool blue light engulfed him, making his skin smooth once more where there had once been bruises. He felt his swollen, broken ankle heal as the bone cracked back into place, he felt it swirling around his punctured leg, stitching the flesh back together, burning out the infection.

The young warlock then directed his magic to the gaping stab wound in his chest, he yelled out in pain as the pure power seared his open wound. There was a sickening smell of burning flesh as the lacerated flesh was first cauterised, then knitted back together. _Gods! this was taking all he had. _Now came the really tricky part - the part that Merlin doubted would actually work. He reached through the bright blue blaze and opened up the jar with his eye in it. The awful smelling liquid it had been floating in had stopped It from decomposing, but Merlin was still unsure.

He took the eye in his glowing blue hand and pressed in into the empty socket. Merlin screamed with all hells fury, as his magic burned around the scarred flesh. He felt the nerves and connections reseal themselves, searing with the pure shock of being together again. He blinked in surprise as he could suddenly see out of both eyes - he could _**see**_ again. It had never felt so good to be able to see his mentor again as the elderly physician stood, watching Merlin in shock and awe.

Merlin's magic then began to recede, leaving him feeling empty and very, very weak. The boy slumped back onto the bed, utterly exhausted, he closed his eyes in relief - he had done it. A relieved smile plastered itself all over his face - he had healed himself. But then all of that relief and happiness and finally not being in unbearable pain vanished with three words - spoken by one prat. _**"You have magic?!" **_

**I'm saying nothing - simply. Muhahaha**.


	19. Its all going to be alright

**Its all going to be alright**

Arthur was in a nightmare. He had walked straight in on one of the worst sights he could imagine - Merlin using magic. But also one of the best - Merlin was alive and well. His head spun and his mind was so conflicted that he didn't know what to do or say. A voice in his mind that sounded suspiciously like Uther, was telling him to run the sorcerer through. But then another part of him was telling him that this was Merlin - kind, loyal, brave, dopey Merlin. He wasn't using magic for anything evil - he was healing himself. But he was using magic.

The king came back to himself, he was shaking and Merlin had now shot back up to face him, with a terrified look upon his face. Arthur's heart nearly broke. Merlin had not looked scared in any battle and had only looked concerned for Arthur when Cenred had held him at sword point. And now Merlin looked afraid of _him. _Arthur sat down hard and fast on the nearest chair, he scrubbed his hands over his face, they were shaking.

"Arthur, I'm so sorry." Merlin whispered, his pale face covered in sweat and tears dribbling down from his two whole eyes.

"I wanted to tell you so many times before. . .but I didn't want to make it difficult for you. . .to choose between me and your father . . .I only ever used my magic to help you."

Arthur gazed at Merlin, his friend was crying and scared because of him - he didn't want that. But he needed to have some questions answered. "Why? Why practice magic in Camelot? Why learn it? Didn't you know how dangerous it was?" Merlin swallowed convulsively, his Adams apple bobbed visibly. "I was born with it . .I could move objects with my mind before I could walk - it wasn't a choice, Arthur. I never really wanted it but if I tried to push it away . . . Bad things happened, I lost control of it." Merlin ducked his head again, his voice thick with tears. "But once I was in Camelot, I only used it to protect you and Gwen and Gaius too. Magic isn't necessarily evil - it depends on whoever is using it, I tried to be good and I try to help people."

Arthur stared at the warlock for a moment before hugging him tightly, Merlin winced at first and Arthur quickly released him. "Sorry, are you ok?" the prince asked, concerned. Merlin nodded and replied. "Yeah, I'm just a tired, magic like that takes a lot out of you." Gaius moved forward and helped Merlin lay gently back on the patients bed. Arthur couldn't help but ask. "You're quite powerful aren't you - I mean to be able to save your own life, reattach an eye and heal all of your own wounds?"

Merlin smiled, a bit embarrassed at this. "I'm the most powerful warlock in the world - to my knowledge anyway." Arthur gaped. His manservant? His Merlin? The most powerful sorcerer alive? This was just too much to take in. then he remembered Gaius's angry words from earlier. "How many times have you saved my life Merlin?" he asked rhetorically.

Merlin shrugged and answered tiredly. "At last count - 142, wasn't it?" He looked up at his mentor, who smiled and replied. "Actually I think it was 143 - remember the Mercian assassin, last winter?" Merlin laughed and nodded reminiscently. "Oh yeah, he tried to take my head off didn't he? I was out for a whole banquet." Arthur frowned - he remembered that feast, Merlin had mysteriously disappeared halfway through and Gaius had said he'd been in the tavern.

Arthur let out a whistle and stared from Merlin to Gaius and back again - searching for a hint that either was joking - they weren't. This day was just too much for him.

**Nearly at the end of this one I`m afraid! But don`t fear! I have published the first chapter of my new fic, so please check it out! Once again thank you for the reviews! And if you wanted a reveal fic warning, sorry! **


	20. A new dawn

**A new dawn**

It had been a whole week and everything was nearly ok again. Merlin had spent the next three days after his healing recovering in his own room, much to his annoyance. The young warlock had spent the second and third days bugging Gaius about wanting to get back to work - he felt very restless, just sitting in bed, doing nothing. Merlin _wanted_ to be busy - it kept his mind of other things. Arthur shaped things.

The blonde king had not come to see him since he had woken up, Merlin was growing increasingly worried that Arthur didn't want to see him because of his magic. Although Arthur had taken it a lot better than Merlin had hoped at first, now he was more concerned than ever that Arthur would just consider him a traitor. He knew that Arthur probably hadn't come to visit him because he didn't consider Merlin a friend anymore. Despite Gaius's reassurances that Arthur just needed time to come to grips with this revelation - Merlin was expecting that Arthur would probably have him banished.

Merlin knew that Arthur's deeply engrained hatred of magic would almost certainly trump their years of friendship. So he stopped arguing with Gaius after the third day, and also because the old physician had threatened to give him a sleeping draught to shut him up. He had been cooped up in his tiny bedroom for seven miserable days, with only his worries and loneliness for company. He ate, slept and read but didn't really feel like doing any of it to be honest.

That was why, when Gaius told him to go straight to Arthur's chambers, he was incredibly reluctant. He knew that the king was probably going to banish him, at least he wouldn't be executed Merlin mused as he trudged his way to the king's chambers. His feet had trodden this path so many times, he didn't even have to pay attention to where he was going any more. Merlin was going to miss Camelot, he was going to miss Arthur, Gaius, Gwen and even most of the knights. He didn't think that he would miss having to keep his magic a secret, but it was worth it just for the pleasure of having friends. Merlin thought that he would return to Ealdor, to his mother who he rarely spent any time with nowadays. Then maybe he could find Gwaine or maybe Lancelot. . .

All thoughts of possible post banishment plans were wiped from his mind however, when he realized that he was outside Arthur's chambers. Merlin stared at the door for a moment, only this carved piece of wood separated him from this dismal future and a man who probably hated him right now. wouldn't it just be better to beat the inevitable to it and leave without the shameful chastisements from Arthur? He was about to turn around and leave when the door was opened from the other side and Arthur gestured for him to enter. Merlin hesitated a bit awkwardly before stepping through and into Arthur's room.

The room was unnaturally tidy - due to another, better servants work no doubt, everything was in its place. Except for Arthur's desk, which was a mess of quills, parchment and official stamps. Arthur went over to stand by the desk, fiddling with some of the papers there, not looking at Merlin. "Sire, before you say anything, I'd like to thank you." Merlin swallowed, Arthur had still not looked up from his papers, so he continued. "I'd like to thank you for the years of patronage and friendship that you have offered to me. And I would like to say that I respect your decisions and that I will think of you fondly-"

Arthur looked up in surprise at this, turning to face his manservant. "What _are _you talking about Merlin?" he asked. "I'm leaving and I thought that it would be easier for both-" Arthur cut him off with a shocked shout of disbelief. "You're leaving?!" Merlin blinked. "Um, yes I thought that was why you'd summoned me here? The whole banishment thing?" he mumbled. Arthur gazed at Merlin as if he was the most stupid thing that he had ever seen. "_Merlin_, you idiot, why would I banish you?"

Merlin was now incredibly confused. "So. . .if I'm not banished, then why am I here?" he inquired slowly. "_Because_, ice brain, I wanted to show you this." Arthur said in a tone that implied he was talking to someone very slow witted, he thrust a sheet of papers into Merlin's hand, who looked down at them with a frown. "By the powers invested in me, King Arthur Pendragon of Camelot, only son of Uther Pendragon. I hereby declare from this day forth, that the practice of sorcery is legalized - excluding necromancy and any other magic's that could cause harm. So may it be." Merlin stared up at Arthur, he didn't know what to say, his brain had pretty much shut down.

"Magic is now allowed in Camelot, you have shown me - shown the whole kingdom that magic is not inherently evil. It is only the user that decides what to do with it. I have always felt that my father was too harsh with sorcerers - I think that if we don't prosecute people for what they are, then they may stop hating us." Arthur smiled at him and placed a hand on his shoulder. Merlin felt tears spring to his eyes and he said. "Thank you Arthur. Thank you." Merlin had finally fulfilled his destiny - Arthur was king of all Albion, there was peace and magic was being returned to the realm.

**Hi this is the last chapter! But if you want more there is going to be a sneaky extra chapter if i can get around to it, sorry i`m super busy with exam revision right now! My other fanfic might be less disapointing than this one, so please check it out - its called "are you satisfied?" and i`m afraid that `im very mean to Merlin in this one but warning! Don`t read if you don`t like GirlMerlin or Merthur! Thank you so much for all of the great reviews on this one though! They really made me feel better about my writing! Seeya! Also a shout out to BreathingMagic and **candycanelila! You are the best and most loyal followers ever! Just like Merlin! :)  
candycanelila


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